Internal combustion engines are well known and widely used, in applications ranging from producing torque for vehicle propulsion or operation of pumps, compressors, or other stationary machinery, to electric power generation. In a typical internal combustion engine system a fuel such as a diesel distillate liquid fuel, a gaseous fuel like natural gas, gasoline, or still others is combusted with air in one or more engine cylinders according to well-known principles. Certain applications tend to require engine speed and engine load to be relatively dynamic in response to varying demands of the particular application. Adjustments to these and parameters can require or cause variation in the operation of various engine subsystems and/or other operating properties.
For example, increasing or decreasing engine load typically requires change to the amount, and potentially the pressure or timing of delivery, of fuel to the cylinders in each engine cycle. Other parameters such as turbocharger boost pressure, exhaust temperatures, and still others can vary in response to the fueling changes. Those skilled in the art will be familiar with the phenomenon known as turbocharger lag, where engine speed increase requests are associated with a delay time before engine torque increase is actually observed. In certain engine system designs such as a generator set or “genset,” where an engine is coupled with an electric generator, turbocharger lag can contribute to sub-optimal load acceptance performance or other shortcomings. U.S. Pat. No. 7,174,714 sets forth one known strategy where an electrical device coupled with a turbocharger can selectively power the turbocharger to reduce lag.